


To The Rescue!

by Akihaa



Category: BanG Dream! (Anime), BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, VR NFO au, first encounter, self indulgent sayolisa no one can tell me what to do
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2019-11-06 19:59:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17946167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akihaa/pseuds/Akihaa
Summary: AU where NFO is a VR MMORPG and Lisa meets Sayo, who is an extremely OP player through some strange circumstances.Latest update: Chapter 2 and Lisa's crazy ass idea





	1. Encounter

**Author's Note:**

> This idea came from the fact that it’s canon that Sayo continues playing NFO after the event and I headcanon she becomes really good at the game and so this happened.
> 
> Shoutout to Nat for giving me ideas for some of the interaction in this, and Dita for drawing that One SayoLisa NFO art

     “Hello, Cleric Lisa, and welcome to Prontera! What would you like to do?”

 

     Lisa had approached a female NPC who proceeded to give her a menu of options.

 

     She’d just joined this popular VR RPG game called NFO, as per recommendation from her friends Rinko and Ako, but she was completely lost in the main city and was trying to find some kind of tutorial. While she could technically ask any number of the players within the crowded city, she felt much too intimidated to do so due to everyone’s custom looking gear compared to her plain and common starting level robes. Rinko and Ako had told her they’d show her the ropes when she got on, but she figured she’d might as well try and learn a thing or two before they got online.

 

     She filtered through the options the NPC gave her, which consisted of: Talk, FAQ, Warp, and Back.

 

     Lisa clicked on the first option from the HUD, to which the NPC began to rattle off preprogrammed small talk. She also mentioned something about the current event, but it completely flew over Lisa’s head.  
    Next, she skimmed through the FAQ, which mentioned something of a training grounds for beginning players.

     “Oh, hey, that sounds like a good place to start!” Lisa exclaimed as she hit the back button to warp to the area mentioned in the FAQ.

     “Where would you like to warp?” The NPC asked as she presented her a long list of dungeons. Lisa scrolled down the neverending list for the name of the area she read before stopping at what she thought was it.

     “Silent Woods...I think that was it…?” The healer muttered to herself before mindlessly reaching out and tapping on the name.

 

     “Now transporting you to: Silent Woods!”

 

     “W-Woah!!”

 

     Lisa found herself being lifted into the air and a mysterious golden light wrapping around her. The world around her faded into white. Some other players appeared around her in the white room while the words “Now Loading…” flashed in front of her eyes. Then the white room vanished, along with all the other users, and formed into a grand forest thick with trees, brush, and flowers. The outer area appeared to be some kind of paradise, with the sunlight filtering in through the canopy, colorful and diverse types of plants, as well as otherworldly looking mushrooms.   

     “This is amazing…” Lisa awed as she wandered around. “I can’t believe this is all digital! The graphics and sensory data and everything seem so real.” She reached out to touch some of the trees and leaves to take in the world around her. The healer gripped her staff tightly as she continued deeper into the woods. Lisa can’t seem to shake an unsettling feeling that she shouldn’t be here, but it wasn’t exactly that there were any other paths to follow.

  
     “W-where is everyone? This is the training grounds, isn’t it? So why is it so...quiet?” Lisa said to herself. Well, as the name implied, this was supposedly a silent woodland, but she had assumed that the area would be much, much more populated with new players such as herself. Not to mention that all signs of colorful flora seemed to disappear, along with the songs of the wildlife. There wasn’t even background music she could turn on. “...Um...Hello!!! Is anybody out here?” Lisa called out. There’s no response other than the sound of her own voice and breath. Not even a squeak of a mouse or drop of a slime. “That’s weird...I could’ve sworn it said this was the-”

     Then, a deafening roar reverberated throughout the still air, causing Lisa to jam her hands to her ears. All manner of birds that hid among the tree branches took to the air upon hearing the ear splitting cry, something that Lisa wish she could do as well. Her knees trembled underneath her as she held her measly wooden staff close to her body, eyes searching for any other sign of movement.

     But it was silent. Too silent. Lisa swallowed as sweat rolled down her temples, fear chaining her down onto the dirt floor. A few more seconds passed. The healer, thinking that whatever had made that sound must have gone away, finally let go of her held breath and put a hand to her quivering heart.

     “What in the world could have-”

     But it appeared Lisa had spoken too soon. Just as she thought she was safe, the ground shook beneath her feet as the sound of breaking trees crackled through the forest. The shaking and sounds came in a rhythm, as if they were...footsteps, thudding, stomping, and growing closer with each passing second.

     Then it appeared.

     Some kind of monstrous, one-eyed, cycloptic abomination came into view. Its mouth dribbled with saliva and warts riddled its sickly, violet colored face and body. It wore a necklace of rusty swords and axes, perhaps what Lisa assumed to be former belonging of unfortunate users.

     And she was about to become one of them.

     “N-No way…” She shivered. The healer gawked up at the towering monster as she took a step back, but a stubborn tree root caused her to lose her footing and fall to the floor onto her backside. “T-there’s no way that’s a beginner monster! W-what is this!?” Lisa couldn’t even muster the courage to scramble up and run away, despite her own self begging her to as the behemoth creature continued closer. Everything felt so real that Lisa didn’t even have time to remind herself that it was all just a game.

     Suddenly, the giant stopped in its tracks. It was still some ways away from Lisa, which caused her to wonder why it had paused. But its single, glistening eye aimed its gaze straight at her, causing a chill to run down her spine. With its eye still trained at the poor, lone cleric, it reached for something, something that Lisa couldn’t make out what it was from the distance. But it slowly extended its arm backwards, item in hand, and flung it straight towards Lisa’s direction at sonic speed. Lisa brought her arms up as she yelled, wondering if the VR world would create the feeling of pain as well.

 

     But the pain never did come. Instead, a woman, clad in armor and with sword and shield in hand, charged in front of her like a bolt of turquoise lightning. The object that was hurling towards her smashed against the shield that the mysterious girl had thrusted out, shattering into pieces. Lisa’s hair and robes fluttered behind her from the wind pressure of the force between the shield and object, but the warrior who had protected her didn’t even so much as falter at the powerful impact. Without a second thought, the armored girl extended her shield back. Lisa saw it begin to glow and hum with life.

 _“Shield Boomerang!”_ The warrior shouted, her voice reverberating as she slinged the shield towards the monster at lightning speed. The colossal fiend didn’t even have a split second to react before the shield struck it square in the eye. It let out a horrifying shriek as it covered its eye, which was now oozing with dark, vicious liquid.

     Without sparing another second, Lisa’s savior raised the tip of her sword to the heavens, and it, too, began to glow. Blue lightning enveloped the blade, its sparks reaching out into the air as if searching for prey. Then, the warrior heaved the sword through the air with another shout.

 _“Moon Fang!”_ The shining energy that had gathered upon its blade bolted away in the shape of an arc and straight to the monster. With one, final strike, the concentrated lightning cleaved the fiend in two.   

     The warrior, seeing her job done once the two halves of the creature disappeared, quietly sheathed her weapon before reaching out an arm. The shield that she had thrown earlier arched back through the air and returned to its rightful place upon the woman’s left arm, which she then placed upon her back. She turned, revealing her face to the poor player she had just saved.

 

     “Are you alright? Can you stand?” She asked, offering a hand to Lisa. Lisa, awestruck at the pure amount of power shown before her very eyes, couldn’t even process what was happening as she gaped. Her rescuer had to wave her hand in front of her to snap her out of her trance. “Hello? Miss?”

     “Oh, y-yeah! I’m alright, thanks to you.” Lisa reached out and took her hand as she rose to her feet. She took a closer look at the warrior, now that things have calmed down. Lisa found her to be quite beautiful with her hair worn in a high ponytail and emerald hued eyes. “I’m Lisa, by the way! I owe you big time, Miss…” The other woman took a moment to respond.

     “...You can just call me Sayo...ri. Just Sayori.” She lied. In real life, Sayo was quite secretive about her personal life, and that applied doubly so for her online life. “And that couldn’t be any more true, Miss Lisa. What on Earth is such a low level user like you doing here? This is one of the most dangerous dungeons in the game, you know. That monster you saw just now is the hardest one to beat in this map.” She scolded.

     “Wait, really!?” Lisa’s eyes widened as she yelped. “I think this was supposed to be the training grounds! Silent Woods...right?” She put a hand to her chin as she looked up in thought. Sayo tilted her head to the side in confusion before a lightbulb appeared above her head when she connected the dots together.

     “...Serene Woods.” She clarified.

     “Huh?”

     “It’s Serene Woods. The training grounds you speak of is Serene Woods, not Silent Woods. That’s why such a huge boss monster appeared.”

     “Oooohhh,” Lisa gasped. “Well. Guess that’s my bad! Luckily you were here to save me, Sayori! Oh, and you can just call me Lisa, you know?”

     Sayo shook her head. “I don’t mind you calling me Sayori, but we’ve only just met, so I’ll stick with Miss Lisa for now.”

     “Ehh…Well, I guess if that’s what you prefer! By the way, why did you decide to save me? If that, er, boss just now really is so hard to beat, wouldn’t it have been better for you to run away?” Lisa asked.

     “Why I saved you? It’s obvious, isn’t it? You were about to die.” Just as Sayo responded with this, another player nearby yelled in anguish before disappearing off the mini-map in their HUD. Lisa and Sayo shared an awkward look before Sayo shrugged. “Uh...he’ll respawn.”

     “Well, I would too, wouldn’t I?” Lisa countered with a sly grin.

     “Why, you-” While Sayo had been telling the truth, that she doesn’t like letting other players just die when she can help it, she wasn’t about to admit that part of it was that seeing a helpless, pretty looking healer somehow activated something in her to leap into action. Sayo huffed as she turned around and started walking off. “Alright, then. I just won’t save you next time.”

     “W-Wait!! I was just teasing you! Miss Sayori!!” Lisa called out as she jogged to catch up with the other girl. Sayo sighed and turned back around.

     “I told you, just Sayori is fine. Also, I had to defeat that boss for the event quest anyway, so don’t think too much about it.”

     “Okay, okay, I got it, Sayori.” Lisa giggled. Sayo continued to walk ahead, towards the place where the monster she defeated earlier disappeared. She stopped as she got to the spot and leaned down to pick up some items scattered across the floor. Lisa looked on curiously as Sayo touched each one before they glowed and then disappeared into the air. Sayo fiddled around with her HUD before a notification appeared on Lisa’s own.

 

_“User Sayori has gifted you: (1) Rusted Lance, (1) Soldier’s Helm, (2) Jotunn Bones!“_

 

     “Here. I don’t need these, so I’m giving them to you. You can’t use most of it since you’re a healer class, but you should be able to sell them for some money instead.” Sayo explained.

     “Oh, thanks, Sayori! You know, you look kinda scary, but...you seem really nice on the inside.”

     “...Is that supposed to be an insult or a compliment?” Sayo said as she raised a brow.

    “It’s a–Oh!” A message from Rinko suddenly appeared in front of her.

 

    “Imai-san, so sorry for the wait (´・ω・｀) Ako and I are online now. Where are you at the moment? We are waiting at Prontera.”

 

     “I’m assuming those are your friends?” Sayo asked.

     “Y-Yeah! It says they’re waiting for me at the main city, but...I’m uh, kind of new, so I don’t really know how to...get back there.” Lisa grimaced as she scratched the back of her head.

     “Well, normally you would travel to a warp point on the map,” Sayo pulled up her mini-map and showed it to her, which was fully detailed as opposed to Lisa’s, which was only filled out in the areas she traveled. She pointed to a blue dot near one of the corners. “But it’s quite far from here, so the best way would be to just use a Butterfly Wing. Do you have any of those?” Lisa checked her inventory and found none, so she shook her head. “Well, no matter. I have plenty, so you can have them.” Sayo gave the cleric 20 of said butterfly wings, which made Lisa laugh for some reason.

     “I think this is the third time you’ve helped me today, Sayori. You really are a nice person.” She said, giving a smile that made the corners of Lisa’s eyes crinkle together. Looking at it made Sayo’s face all itchy for some reason.

    “...I’m doing it just because I want to.” She muttered as she averted her gaze. “Anyway, you should go soon, Miss Lisa. You probably shouldn’t keep your friends waiting. Just tap on the wing and say the name of the area you want to go to, and it should warp you there.”

    “R-Right! Thanks again, Sayori!” Lisa followed Sayo’s instructions, and suddenly she was lifted into the air and wrapped with the same golden light as before. She waved goodbye to the warrior who had gallantly saved her life before disappearing. Lisa couldn’t quite see through the light blocking her vision, but she thinks that she waved back at her.

 

    “There she is!! Lisa-nee!! There you are!!” Ako bounced up to Lisa and hugged her.

    “Imai-san...It’s good to see you."

    “Hey, you two!! Am I glad you guys are here now!” Lisa laughed.

    “Huh? What do you mean?” Ako asked.

    “Hm? A-Ah well...it’s a long story, but I don’t mind telling you guys about it if you got time!”

    “I made sure that Ako finished all her homework, which was why we took a while getting on. We have lots of time now, so I don’t mind.” Rinko said.

    “Yeah!! Tell us! Was it perhaps, Lisa-nee encountered a dark being of evil that was out for your holy light as a cleric, but you slayed it with your holy powers!?”

    “Er...I wish. But maybe you’re not too far off…”

 

    Rinko and Ako shared a look of confusion.

 

    “H-Huh!?!?”

 

    “N-No way, you fought a Jotunn? And the Crusader Paladin Sayori came to your rescue??” Ako gawked, accidentally shaking the table of the in-game cafe. She garnered some attention from the other users, but she paid them no mind.

    “Well, I didn’t exactly fight, or even do anything, really. And I had no idea that girl was such a big deal?” Lisa laughed to herself.

    “Sayori is one of the top players of NFO. They say that she came out of nowhere and took the top ranks in less than 3 months.” Rinko explained.

    “Yeah!! Not only that, she’s practically unrivaled in PvP tournaments!! She’s an NFO legend, but nobody knows what her true identity is!!”

    “Ehh, really? No wonder she beat that giant thing in two hits.” Lisa mused.

    “As she said, Jotunn’s are one of the hardest bosses in the game to beat. Even Ako and I would have a hard time fighting one if we’re teamed up.”

“That’s why we should totally get Sayori on our side so we can party up with her and-”  
    “Ako-chan, it would be great if that could happen, but the chances of any of us meeting Sayori again is pretty low…For now, let’s help Imai-san level up and get a hang of the game.”

“Y-you’re right, Rinrin…” Ako deflated before perking right back up. “Alright then, Lisa-nee! I know of a great leveling ground to help you get some skills to protect yourself next time! Let’s go, let’s go!”

 

    “R-right! Thanks, you two. I’m looking forward to playing this game more!”

 

    After about an hour, they all decided to log off. Lisa especially has had her fill with the game after the surreal experience due to the advanced VR. She put the headset down onto her desk and stretched, staring up at her ceiling.

 

    “Sayori, huh…? What a strange girl.” She giggled to herself, remembering the stern, but beautiful looking warrior hiding a kind soul underneath her armor. “I really should have asked to be her friend. I can’t believe I forgot...Well, maybe next time I’ll just…”

 

    Lisa left the idea hanging.

 

    It was bound to be a reckless idea, but Lisa can’t help but want to try it.

 

    “Ahh, whatever. I’ll think about it later. For now, I should practice a bit before heading to bed!”

 

    Lisa walked over to her bass and picked it up.

 

      She plucked at the strings a few times, before she found herself playing the main theme of NFO, the back of an armor clad girl in mind.


	2. Lisa joined your party!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lisa tries out that idea she had last time.
> 
> It worked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this chapter was supposed to come out months ago but I got caught up with semester final projects and ended up forgetting what was gonna happen when I was able to come back to this fic whoops. Anyway does Lisa is Sayo's e-girl

     

“Alright, now...what direction did I go in last time?” The lone cleric muttered to herself as she wandered through the woods.

Specifically, the Silent Woods.

One would think that once someone encountered such a frightening beast out of nowhere all on their own that they would avoid the place for a very, very long time. But it was not the case for Lisa. Instead, she found herself waltzing right back into the dungeon for a very specific reason.

“Weird...I’m pretty sure it was around here where I got attacked, but I’ve been wandering for almost 30 minutes and nothing’s happened.” She pondered aloud. Lisa closed her eyes and put a hand to her chin for a moment, absorbed in thought before a light bulb went off in her head. “Oh! Of course! It must have been because of _that_ . After all, this _is_ called the Silent Woods, right?” She pounded the palm of her hand with a fist as she exclaimed. Just as Lisa nodded to herself, she cleared her throat into a fist, then cupped her hands to the sides of her mouth.

 

**“Ooooiiiiii!!! Hello!! Anybody out there!?”**

 

The cleric’s voice echoed into the quiet forest. She stood still for a moment as she listened, waiting for any sign of movement or foreign sound.

But nothing came except for an eerie breeze that made the leaves shake and dance at its touch.

Lisa tilted her head to the side and scratched at it. “Well, that’s weird. Guess I must have been wrong. But if not for sound, then what else-“

Her train of thought soon became interrupted by a familiar, rhythmic rumbling. Except as opposed to last time, it was much, _much_ , faster. As if whatever it was was...running. Lisa steadied herself against the mini earthquakes that grew in magnitude with every shake. As she clung onto her staff for dear life and balance, a sudden instinct came into her mind, telling her to turn around. She obeyed.

As fate would have it, a mountainous being was sprinting straight towards Lisa’s direction from the distance. After nearly yelling out an expletive (Lisa wasn’t sure how fitting it would exactly be for a woman of the cloth to be using foul language), she bolted away as fast as her legs would carry her.

While she ran, she risked a glance behind her to look at the monster giving chase. While it was a similar size to the one before, it had a more reptilian appearance with its shiny, scaled skin along with its tail swinging to and fro from behind.

The fiend had quickly caught up to Lisa with its alarming speed and large stride. Its shadow now loomed over her, but Lisa refused to give up running. Even though it was only just a VR game, she really felt as if her heart was about to beat out of her own chest. Lisa spared one more glance back at the beast, only to see it raise its giant weapon over its head in preparation to strike down at her. Its tongue lolled out of its fanged snout as its blood lust filled eyes trained on to the defenseless cleric.

But this time, Lisa wasn’t scared. Though it was a senseless idea, she truly believed that if what that girl had told her before was true, that she would come to save her one more time.

She steeled herself as she watched as the monster’s club descended upon her in slow motion.

 

_"Heavenrend!”_

 

Like a bolt from the blue, a blast of light struck the top of the giant’s head and crashed down into the floor, splitting the foe into two with a clean line. It gave a final roar of anguish before it began to disintegrate into nothingness.

Lisa held her breath and stared ahead as the monster disappeared, waiting to see the face of her rescuer. When the last of the fiend floated into the sky, she finally saw them clearly.

A turquoise haired warrior, clad in armor and sword in hand stood before her. She flicked her sword out, and the sickly green blood that dripped along the edge of the blade evaporated into the air in an instant. The warrior then sheathed her sword into its scabbard before lifting her head to look at whatever foolish player that had decided to get themselves caught up with a-

    

“Oh. It’s you.” Sayo deadpanned. For some reason, she didn’t really feel surprised in the slightest. She simply folded her arms and furrowed her brows as the familiar healer jogged up to her with a grin on her face.

“Sayori~~! I knew you’d come to save me!” Lisa chimed.

“Why did you even come back here in the first place?” Sayo sighed, shaking her head as she placed a hand over her face.

“Oh! Uh…I got lost?” There was a moment of silence between them as she said this, both knowing perfectly well it was a sorry excuse.

“...Just spit it out, Miss Lisa.”

“Sorry, Sorry!” Lisa bowed with her hands together in front of her. “The truth is I had forgotten to send you a friend request back then, so I came back here to see if I could find you again.”

“Seriously? That’s it?” Sayo gawked. “You risked losing half your entire inventory and money just to send me a friend request??”

“Uh…yes…?”

“You could have just sent one by looking through your gift log, you know.”

“Wait, really!?”

“Yes. NFO has a huge player base, so they made sure to implement many different ways to find a player you’ve talked to in order to befriend them.”

“Ehhh, I had no idea…” Lisa whispered before clapping her hands together. “Oh well! Since I’m here anyway, let’s be friends!” She put a hand on Sayo’s shoulder and gave a wink. They looked at each other for a moment, Lisa’s eyes shining with glee before Sayo gave her response.

 

“No.”

“Huh!? That was fast...”

 

Sayo turned to walk away, but Lisa followed after her despite her hopes being dashed to pieces.

“W-wait!! But why?”

“My friend list is full. I can only get more space through leveling up, and that takes a lot of time at my current level.” Sayo explained as she walked. “It’s nothing against you personally, Miss Lisa, so there’s no need to take it that way.” As she said this, Lisa breathed a sigh of relief, though a weight still seemed to rest on her chest.

“Ah, I see…” The glimmer in her eye dulled as she deflated. “Well, can I at least party up with you?” Lisa perked back up.

“I’m sorry?” Sayo’s eyes widened at the sudden request.

“You know, travel together in a group? That’s what it’s called, right?”

“I’m well aware of what you are referring to. I’m merely surprised that someone would ask that of me, not to mention someone who clearly would provide no sort of benefit to me by grouping together.” Sayo pointed out.

“W-well, you do have a point, but it’s not like I wanted to group up with you because I wanted you to help me. I just thought it’d be fun! After all, this is a game, right?” Lisa replied. “But hey! I did learn some new abilities since last time! And your class is meant to take a lot of damage from monsters, right? Watch this!”

Lisa trotted in front of Sayo, causing her to stop in her tracks. The healer thrusted her staff out at Sayo, who simply tilted her head to the side in confusion.

“What are you doi-”

" _H_ _eal!”_ As Lisa casted her spell, a golden light enveloped Sayo’s body. The warrior watched it dance around her feet and up to her hands for only a moment before it broke apart and dissipated into the air. “How’s that? Feeling better?” Lisa chipped, seeming proud of herself for successfully casting a spell.

“...Well, I’m sure that I would have, had my health been anything below my max HP in the first place.” Sayo had to hold back a grin as she looked to the side, amused by Lisa’s efforts.

“Soo, is that a yes?” The healer nearly bounced up out of excitement.

“I don’t recall saying anything of the sort.” Sayo quickly countered. Lisa’s shoulders slumped as she pouted. “However…” She turned her back to Lisa, putting a hand on her chin as she pondered. “What are the chances that two event bosses would appear right as this girl stepped foot into the dungeon? I’d been wandering the map for at least half an hour and not a single boss seemed to spawn anywhere…” Sayo slowly paced forward, muttering to herself as Lisa followed closely behind and tried to listen to whatever Sayo was saying, though it was all nonsense to her. Then, a moment of insight dawned upon the warrior. She lifted her head from her hand as she stopped her pacing. “Perhaps they’ve made it so that the bosses prefer attacking healer classes!”

 

Lisa grunted as she bumped into the nape of Sayo’s neck, not expecting the abrupt halt in her movement. She rubbed the spot on her forehead as Sayo twirled around, having been too deep in thought to notice Lisa following so closely behind her.

“Ah...Are you alright, Miss Lisa?” She asked as she took a step back, surprised at the other girl’s proximity.

“Y-yeah! I’m fine, I just wasn’t expecting you to stop so suddenly.” Lisa grimaced.

“Oh, I see. My apologies. In any case, I’ve decided to allow you to team up with me,” The healer’s eyes brightened. “On two conditions!” Sayo finished, raising two fingers in the shape of a V. Lisa listened attentively as Sayo listed them. “One, that you follow my instructions exactly. Should you hinder me in any way by disobeying my commands, consider our party disbanded. Second, that you tell no one of our temporary agreement. As you may already know, I have quite a reputation in the NFO community, and I would prefer to uphold said reputation. If word gets out that I’m helping a new player so easily, rumors are sure to fly about. Do you understand, Miss Lisa?”

Lisa stands straight and snaps a hand to her head in a salute. “Yes, Ma’am! Wait, why does it feel like I’m getting in trouble with my high school disciplinary council again…” She scratched at her head.

“Good. With that said…” Sayo brought up her HUD and fiddled with it. In response, Lisa’s own HUD appeared with a notification.

 

_“User Sayori has sent you a party invitation.”_

 

Lisa stared at the message before glancing up at Sayo. Sayo simply folded her arms and smiled. “Well? What are you waiting for?” She asked, noticing Lisa’s hesitation. Lisa smiled back before tapping on the _Accept_ button.

A box in the corner of the screen appeared, listing Sayo’s name, level (which was a triple digit number), as well as her health and mana bar. Lisa’s name and similar statistics appeared under hers.

“Now then, the way this works is that experience from monsters defeated will split evenly between each member of the party. Since only the two of us are together, that means the experience will be halved. But considering the enemies in this map are already so highly leveled, it should be a cinch to get you up at least 20 levels, depending on how many we can defeat. In any case, I suppose our highest priority would be to at least get your level high enough to upgrade your class.” Sayo rattled off a bunch of information at once, but Lisa thinks she understood all of it. However, something that Sayo said at the end of her spiel caused Lisa to crack a grin that didn’t pass by unnoticed by Sayo.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” She asked with a brow raised.

“Ah, nothing in particular. I was just thinking that you really are a kind person, Sayori.”

Sayo clicked her tongue and turned her back, unwilling to let the cleric get the satisfaction of seeing her cheeks flush. She silently cursed the VR world’s ability to capture even this sort of uncontrollable human behavior.

 

As the pair wandered the Silent Woods together, Sayo figured that her hypothesis was correct. By traveling together with Lisa, who was a healer class, many more of the event bosses appeared compared to when she was traveling alone. Sayo defeated each one of them without a scratch, while Lisa stood at the sidelines casting whatever spells she could to feel useful in some way. By the end of it, Sayo managed to take down enough monsters, allowing Lisa’s level to skyrocket from 12 to 36.

After killing one last one, Sayo wiped a drop of sweat away from her brow as she turned to face Lisa.

 

“I think that should be good enough for today. Let’s head back to the main city. There’s a warp point nearby, so we shouldn’t have to use a butterfly wing to get back.” The warrior sheathed her weapon and headed towards the point.

“R-right!” Lisa jogged up beside her. They walked side by side in silence for a moment before a spark of curiosity took hold of Lisa. “Hey, Sayori?”

“What is it, Miss Lisa?”

“How come you’re going after so many of these monsters? Is it because of some kind of quest?” She asked. Sayo nodded in response.

“That’s correct. Defeating a certain amount of those bosses are a part of the current event quest. Only after defeating the required number of them am I able to access the final boss.” Sayo explained. Lisa’s eyes widened upon realizing the implications of a final boss.

“No way! You mean there’s something even stronger than those things? Granted, you make them look easy to take down, but...why take on such a tedious quest in the first place? Is the reward really that amazing?”

“While the reward is said to be quite the rare and limited item, I’m not doing it simply because of that. The young girl who gave me the quest is in need of help, and I plan to do so.”

Lisa had to hold back a laugh. “For some reason, I’m not really surprised at you saying something like that.” She muttered to herself. “But, what does a little girl have to do with killing a bunch of these crazy monsters?”

“Apparently, her mother, the Cardinal of the Church, went missing when she went to go seal away an ancient beast and didn’t come back. I plan to find her and bring her back in order to reunite the two. In order to do that, I need to defeat a certain number of these monsters to ”

“Ehh, that’s...surprisingly deep, coming from a game.” Lisa mused, garnering a chuckle from Sayo herself.

“I suppose it is, and why I continue to find myself playing this game in the first place. Even though it is a game, I can’t help but fulfill as many quests as I can.” Sayo stopped in her tracks in front of a glowing stone altar with a blue pillar of light emitting from its center. “We’re here.” She announced. “After you, Miss Lisa.”

 

Sayo gestured with a smile towards the pillar. The healer nodded, somewhat touched by the display of chivalry, and stepped into the light with Sayo following right behind her. Their surroundings disappeared and briefly turned into an eternal white room as they waited before arriving in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the main city, Prontera.

“Now then,” Sayo started. “I believe this may be where we part ways. I will be going to talk to the girl now to advance my quest, so it was a pleasure working together w-”

“W-wait!” Lisa cut Sayo off. Sayo raised a brow, egging Lisa to continue her sentence. “Um, can I come with you? To talk to the girl, I mean.”

“Well, I suppose I have no opposition to it, though I’m not sure why you may be interested.” Sayo replied, already turning to walk in the direction of the event area of the city.

“Mm, just chalk it up to curiosity? Hehe~”

 

As Lisa walked alongside Sayo, she took note of the cute looking outfits that other higher level healer class players seemed to wear, and wondered if she would be able to get her hands on cute equipment like theirs someday. Thinking this, she stole a glance to the armor clad warrior, and realized she had never seen any other players wearing the same armor as her. Lisa remembered the time Rinko and Ako were first introducing the game to her and mentioned that some people will pay real money to access exclusive items in the game.

 

“Hey, Sayori?” She asked as they continued making their way through swarming crowds.

“What is it now, Miss Lisa?”

“You seem to be a pro at this game, so I was curious...Have you spent a lot of money on this game?”

Sayo shook her head. “No, I haven’t. None, in fact.” She curtly replied. Lisa’s mouth nearly hit the floor.

“E-Ehh!?!? But, all your equipment and stuff, aren’t they super rare or something? I mean, I haven’t seen anyone else wearing the same stuff as you before, so…”

“That’s simply because the quests to obtain this gear are very long and tedious, which deters most players from completing the quest in the first place.” Sayo quickly answered. “Frankly, I was more interested in helping the person take down the evil cult that was using their village members for forbidden alchemic experiments than the reward I would be given.” Lisa had to do a double take.

“S-sorry, what was that? You said-”

“Evil alchemic cults, yes.” Sayo confirmed, acknowledging the bizarreness of the word combination. “There’s quite a number of interesting quests available in this game, Miss Lisa. You might find them worth your time to do, should you continue into this game further.” Lisa could swear Sayo gave her a ghost of a smile just then, but a young voice called out to them as Sayo stopped in her tracks.

 

“Hiya cool lady warrior! You came back!”

“Yes. I’ve returned, having defeated the number of Jotunn’s you asked of me the first time we spoke, young miss.”

 

Lisa looked down to see a small, green haired girl standing by the doors of a great cathedral. With the way that Sayo was talking to her, she assumed that the girl must have been the event NPC that she was talking about earlier. Other than the girl’s hair, Lisa’s eye for fashion seemed to catch on the star shaped jewel pendant that hung around her neck. Though the golden chain seemed much too long and big for a girl her size, Lisa noted the wonderful myriad of colors that the necklace reflected.

 

“Wow, you’re amazing! Thank you so much!” The girl clasped her hands together. “Now that you have enough souls, I can make a key for you to get past the barrier to the underground cave where my mommy went!” Sayo nodded.

“Please, young miss. Do what you must so that I may retrieve the Cardinal.”

“Alright! Please hold still for a moment, okay?”

Lisa watched the young girl close her eyes and began muttering an incantation under her breath. Suddenly, a blue circle of light marked itself upon the ground at their feet.

“W-Woah!” The healer, unused to these magical effects of the game, stumbled about within the circle, unsure whether she should step out or stay inside the mysterious light. Sayo, however, was already quite familiar with this, having encountered similar effects in previous quests before.

“Hold still, Miss Lisa. You might mess up the spell if you step outside the circle and we’ll have to do it again.” She said, reaching out to grab Lisa by the elbow. The healer let out a squeak as she felt herself getting pulled close up to Sayo, who kept a firm, but gentle grip upon Lisa’s arm to keep her tight against her side. Lisa had to blink once, twice to regain her bearings from everything going on at once, but as a strange wind began to billow around her robes, she slowly craned her neck up an inch to glance at Sayo’s profile. For some reason, the stern, furrowed crease upon Sayo’s brow, the ethereal blue light reflecting softly on her skin (Lisa seemed to notice a few small and faded scarrings around her jawline), and the way her teal blue hair flowed with the breeze like silk, all perfectly complemented Sayo’s profile in such a way that almost made Lisa forget how to breath. She discreetly put a hand on her chest to calm the pounding at her chest.

 

Then, small colored orbs of light manifested before their eyes, one after another. They beamed towards the center of the circle, leaving a trail of light behind them as if they were fairies, and merged together one by one to create a larger, oval shape. After the last soul combined with the shape, the glowing layer of lustre broke into pieces like glass to reveal a smooth stone gem. Sayo reached out as it floated in midair towards them and grasped it into her gloved hand. Lisa took a closer look at it, noticing the peculiar triangular markings on the translucent purple surface.

 

The glowing ring at the ground soon faded away as the little girl completed the spell.

 

“Okie dokie! All done!” She chimed. “Will you two rescue my mommy now?”

“Yes, well…” Sayo glanced up at the time in the corner of her HUD when she stowed the stone into her inventory. “I’m afraid I have to...make preparations before going to save your mother. But rest assured that I will fulfill my promise, young miss.”

“Yay!! Thank you soooo much, Miss Warrior!” The girl bounced in place with a wide grin on her face, her necklace floating in the air for a second before she landed on her feet. Lisa couldn’t help but find it strange how the girl seemed to remain so cheery even though her mother had gone missing. She thought that it was perhaps her way of remaining strong, and Lisa’s respect for the young girl grew. The other thing she noticed was that her star shaped pendant design seemed to match the ones upon the stained glass windows of the cathedral they stood before.

“By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask this, but…” Lisa began to speak. “I was curious about your necklace. It’s very intricately made!” Sayo had directed her attention at Lisa as she asked her question and turned to look back at the girl, pondering the same thing.

“Oh, this?” The girl grasped the necklace in her tiny palms, gazing down at it. “This...my mommy gave it to me! She said that when I’m older, I’ll need this for something important!”

“Is that so?” Lisa said, tilting her head to the side. If it was from her mother, then it must be the insignia for the church or something. “Well, it’s very pretty. Make sure you take care of it, alright?”

“Okay!”

 

Sayo turned to Lisa. “Now then, this is where I must leave. It’s getting quite late for me, after all.”

“Oh, now that you mention it, it is getting late.”

“I appreciate your help today, Miss Lisa. I hope the next time we meet that you’re not being chased to death by a giant monster ten times your level.” Sayo smirked.

“W-wait!” Lisa called out just before Sayo reached for the logout button. “Um, this may be a bit much to ask, but…” Lisa shyed a bit, pressing her fingers together as she looked at anywhere except Sayo’s piercing eyes.

“What is it?” The warrior pressed.

“I was thinking! What if I tagged along with you on the final boss!” Lisa spit out.

 

“I’m sorry?” Sayo blinked. “You would like to join me on the final boss fight, you say?”

“Yeah!”

“That’s absolutely preposterous.” Sayo shook her head.

“C’mon!! You let me tag along with you today, and I did as you said, didn’t I?” Lisa countered, grabbing onto Sayo’s arm. “Let me go with you, Sayori~!” Lisa gave her the best puppy eyes she could muster. All it took was one glance at them for Sayo to feel her cheeks warm and tore her gaze away. She pursed her lips and sighed.

 

“Alright. Fine.”

“Yay!!” Lisa pumped her fists in the air.

“Meet me here at 8pm tomorrow, real time. Don’t be late, or else I’ll leave without you, understand?”

“Right!”

“You really are quite the most persistent healer I’ve met, you know that?” Sayo commented, but not without a smile.

“And you’re the most helpful warrior I’ve met! Though, I haven’t even been playing this game for long, so I’m not sure if that says much.”

 

Sayo couldn’t help but chuckle at Lisa’s little joke. The healer thought that Sayo’s face looked brighter when she smiled.

“Well then, I’ll see you tomorrow, Lisa.”

“Right! I’ll see you!”

 

Sayo finally pressed the log out button on her HUD. Lisa waved goodbye as she watched as her avatar dissipated into the air. Her hand froze as a realization dawned upon her.

 

“...Wait, did she just call me Lisa?”

 

* * *

 

“Hey sis! I’m back!!”

 

Sayo heard her twin sister’s voice outside her room and quickly scrambled to remove the headset off her face and haphazardly threw it into some compartment of her desk. She closed out the residing window on her monitor screen and switched it to some music video she had been studying beforehand. Just as she expected, her room door flung open without even a knock.

 

“Sis?”

“Hina, how many times do I have to tell you to knock before you come in? It’s common courte-”

“Yeah, yeah, my bad! Anyway, I got some fries back home. Are you hungry?” Hina lifted a paper bag up into view, completely ignoring Sayo’s plea. It was routine, at this point. The scent of fried potatoes had already convinced Sayo.

“Alright, I’ll have some.”

They moved to the family room, where Hina turned the TV on with the remote to set some background noise.

“Hm? What are these?” Sayo reached in to the paper bag and pulled out a plastic vinyl bag that enwrapped a number of cookies.

“Oh! Those are the cookies from the new bakery down the street! They were having a sale, so I got some. Look! They’re in the shape of puppies and kitties!” Hina took the bag and untied the baby blue ribbon. She reached in and pulled out a cat shaped cookie with colorful frosting decoration on its face that mimicked a cartoonish looking cat, and handed it to her sister.

Sayo held it in her hands, observing the sweet treat.

For some reason, it reminded her of the lips of a certain healer she happened to encounter not long ago.

“Sis? What’s up? You look deep in thought.” Hina asked with raised brows.

“...No, it’s nothing. Let’s eat the fries before they go cold.” Sayo pulled the fries out and poured them onto the plate on the table. 

“Okay! So get a load of this, sis! When I was out with Aya-chan just now, she ran into a fan, and they immediately recognized her and Aya-chan start crying for no reason and…”

As Hina began giving Sayo a run down of her activities with her idol group as usual, Sayo halfheartedly nodded whenever she said something remotely interesting.

 

However, as Sayo absently listened, her mind was on a completely different topic entirely. Her gaze kept drifting towards the bag of cookies and the cat shaped lips of that persistent, yet charming girl of her secret guilty passtime, NFO.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mayhaps Lisa will be able to be Sayo's NFO friend soon......
> 
> anyway if you can tell the quality of writing suffered at the end it's because i keep forgetting what i'm gonna write and so i nyoomed out the last part to get it over with and posted yeet

**Author's Note:**

> Yes this is incredibly self indulgent but it’s SayoLisa and free real estate so I get to do what I want. It was also kind of refreshing to write compared to what I’m usually used to writing!
> 
> Anyway hope you enjoyed reading this fic. Don’t forget to leave a comment and Kudos if you did! For more prime nonsense content, find me on twitter @AkihaFuji!


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